1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computer speech recognition systems and, in particular, to a system and method for automating the text transcription of voice dictation by various end users.
2. Background Art
Speech recognition programs are well known in the art. While these programs are ultimately useful in automatically converting speech into text, many users are dissuaded from using these programs because they require each user to spend a significant amount of time training the system. Usually this training begins by having each user read a series of pre-selected materials for approximately 20 minutes. Then, as the user continues to use the program, as words are improperly transcribed the user is expected to stop and train the program as to the intended word thus advancing the ultimate accuracy of the acoustic model. Unfortunately, most professionals (doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers) and business executive are unwilling to spend the time developing the necessary acoustic model to truly benefit from the automated transcription.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system that offers transparent training of the speech recognition program to the end-users.
There are systems for using computers for routing transcription from a group of end users. Most often these systems are used in large multi-user settings such as hospitals. In those systems, a voice user dictates into a general-purpose computer or other recording device and the resulting file is transferred automatically to a human transcriptionist. The human transcriptionist transcribes the file, which is then returned to the original "author" for review. These systems have the perpetual overhead of employing a sufficient number of human transcriptionist to transcribe all of the dictation files.
Accordingly it is another object of the present invention to provide an automated means of translating speech into text where ever suitable so as to minimize the number of human transcriptionist necessary to transcribe audio files coming into the system.
It is an associated object to provide a simplified means for providing verbatim text files for training a user's acoustic model for the speech recognition portion of the system.
It is another associated object of the present invention to automate a preexisting speech recognition program toward further minimizing the number operators necessary to operate the system.
These and other objects will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the present drawings, specification and claims before them.